


a wolf that's yet to howl

by skyparents



Series: of jack o'lanterns and crescent moons (halloween 2019) [1]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: A Week of Halloween, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Debbie and Tammy are still cute, F/F, Fits with the Hogwarts AU because I'm nothing if not predictable, Fluff, Halloween, I'm sorry but I'm actually very bad at scary things so I skipped over the haunted house part
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-02 19:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21167000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyparents/pseuds/skyparents
Summary: halloween is nothalloween,in the wizarding world. there are pumpkins and ghost stories, yes, but nothing like tammy grew up with. no costumes, no trick-or-treating, no apples floating in open barrels or scary movies or haunted houses. "i've got an idea," says nine-ball, reaching across debbie for the mashed potatoes. "next year when we're all out of school, let’s do something for halloween.”or, magical girlfriends and their six chaotic friends hit up a corn maze and a haunted house. can be read as a standalone, fits into the world built inthrough the sleepless nightanduntil the gravity's too much,because i am nothing if not predictable.





	a wolf that's yet to howl

**Author's Note:**

> at the beginning of this month, i asked for october- and halloween-based prompts for two of my all-time favourite ships: debtam, and scotthope (marvel cinematic universe). so here's the plan: **a week of halloween**. each day, i will be posting a one-shot – there are 3 for scotthope, and 4 for debtam, so i'm going to alternate!
> 
> first up is a prompt based in the hogwarts au i've been writing for these two dorks. it's absolutely fine to read all on its own, but if you haven't read the full au and would like to get more of this world, you can read it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18614986/chapters/44139397)! this begins during debbie and tammy's seventh year at hogwarts, but mostly takes place post-graduation. thank you, anonymous curious cat question asker, for this prompt!
> 
> **prompt:** in the magical world, halloween is a holiday that is more subdued – it’s just known as the day that the veil between the living and the dead is thinned. so deb and the rest of the purebloods in the group have no idea what a muggle halloween entails. tammy and nine, especially, think this is hilarious, and take them all to a typical muggle halloween party with slutty costumes and haunted houses and scary movies.
> 
> (listen, i didn't do the party with slutty costumes, but i did have a cute fluff piece come out of it, anyway, so i hope you like it!)

Halloween is not  _ Halloween, _ in the wizarding world.

There are pumpkins and ghost stories, yes, but nothing like Tammy grew up with. No costumes, no trick-or-treating, no apples floating in open barrels or scary movies or haunted houses. She doesn’t love all of it, exactly, but there is a particular nostalgia to the very idea of it, and when October hits in seventh year and all the decorations go up around the castle, it becomes a well-versed topic of conversation.

“So Muggle kids  _ really _ dress up and knock on strangers’ doors to ask for candy?” Debbie leans forward, elbows resting on the wooden surface of the table. They’re at the Ravenclaw table today, all of them except for Rose since she graduated. “Like, that’s a real thing they do?”

On Tammy’s right, Daphne rolls her eyes. “Merlin, not this again,” she sighs. Amita and Tammy have told her about the differences between the holiday on multiple occasions. Like Tammy, Amita spent her childhood donning a costume on Halloween, trick-or-treating with her Muggle father. But in the world of pureblood witches and wizards, the final night of October is not for dressing up as superheroes or creatures out of their textbooks. It is more subdued, serious, the night that the barrier between the living and the dead is thinned. “It’s so stupid. Why would they  _ do _ that?”

“For  _ candy,” _ pipes up Constance. She’s a half-blood, too, and has her own experiences with Halloween. She shifts from sitting like a regular person to kneeling, eyes going wide with excitement. “Me and Nine used to try and talk about it, but  _ some people” _ – here, she casts a pointed look from Debbie to Lou – “always thought we were making shit up.” She points a fork at Tammy and adds, “I’m telling you, she only believes it now ‘cause it’s  _ you _ saying it.”

“That’s so not true,” Debbie protests. Lies through her teeth, really.

Nine-Ball reaches across her for the mashed potatoes. “Yeah, it is. It’s chill, Deb. We already knew you’re kinda whipped.” And then, barely paying any attention at all to the blush forming on the brunette’s cheeks, she surveys the rest of them and announces, “I’ve got an idea. To prove it to you guys, next year when we’re all out of school, let’s do something for Halloween.”

Tammy looks from Daphne to Lou to Debbie – the purebloods of the group. Them and Rose, and it feels strange to even discuss plans for a year from now without the older girl present. But if Daphne is in, her girlfriend will be, too, she’s sure. Although Daphne’s first response isn’t enthusiastic in the slightest. She sets down her spoon with a drawn-out sigh. “What, trick-or-treating?” she asks, perhaps a little disdainfully.

“No, we’ll be too old for that,” muses Tammy. All eyes swivel to her; she’s captured everyone’s interest at least a little bit by joining in. “People go to parties, but it’ll be hard to find a good one unless we want to track down childhood friends we haven’t talked to in years. We should just… hit up a haunted house, maybe a corn maze. Watch some scary movies. The really traditional stuff, you know?”

The idea falls away in the borderline chaos of the next several months, graduation and impending adulthood on the horizon, and Tammy all but forgets about the whole thing. It’s not until next October, when her mother lets all of them into the flat at once before Tammy can register what’s happening, that she’s reminded. The seven of them crowd into the living room; the place is too small for this many bodies. “What are you guys doing here?” she asks, startled.

Teeth flashing when she smiles, Amita holds up plastic shopping bags. “We brought costumes,” she announces, “and there’s a corn maze twenty minutes away.  _ With _ a haunted house. It’s kind of perfect.”

It turns out that Constance has decided they should all dress up as witches – the traditional kind that Muggles picture when they hear the word, lace-adorned black dresses and wide-brimmed, pointed hats. “It’s  _ funny,” _ she insists as she distributes the hats. “You can’t tell me not a  _ single one _ of you finds this hilarious.”

Pressing Tammy back against the bathroom counter, Debbie applies smokey black eyeshadow and winged liner, darker and more dramatic than she would have chosen for herself, maybe ever. She holds her breath while the dark-haired girl focuses, trying not to move and, admittedly, mesmerized by the clarity with which she can see every single one of her girlfriend’s features, this close. “Are you sure about this?” she asks when Debbie has twisted the cap back onto a tube of mascara. Her eyelashes feel significantly heavier. (“Absolutely. You look good,” Debbie answers with all the certainty in the world, and Tammy tangles her fingers in the girl’s hair and kisses her until Daphne interrupts to tell them it’s time to leave.)

The corn maze is a sprawling field of corn with five-foot wide paths twisting through it, sharp corners and dead ends, and a haunted house towering in the middle. The intensity with which they approach it varies through the entire group – Constance and Nine take it very seriously, while Amita sticks close to anyone who will let her, and Rose is content to wander aimlessly as long as Daphne holds her hand the whole time. Lou, for her part, finds the very concept of the maze too frustrating to focus properly on, and sighs loudly whenever they hit a dead end. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she mumbles every time, spinning on her heel and heading back the way they came from. “Did they just make this thing unsolvable on purpose?”

“There’s a way to get there,” insists Debbie, tugging on Tammy’s hand to pull her along in their wake. As they catch up to Constance, she points a new direction almost at random. “Let’s try this way.”

They make it eventually, circling closer and closer to the haunted house until they find themselves with a completely unobscured view of it. Tammy doesn’t particularly like haunted houses, hasn’t gone in one in years. She attempts to dig in her heels and suggest that she stay outside, almost certain that Rose or maybe Amita will fall back and hang out with her while the others go through, but her friends aren’t exactly content to let her skip it. “I’m really not good with scary things,” she tries.

Lou crosses her arms and eyes her skeptically from underneath her bangs. “It’s not going to be scary.”

“You’ve never  _ been _ in a haunted house, you don’t know that!”

The blonde rolls her eyes. “Come on, Tam. This was the whole point of coming here. You’re the one who suggested it in the first place,” she reminds Tammy, and then spins to Debbie like it’s a last resort. “Okay, this is your job now – get her ass in that house.” Which is completely unfair, considering that Debbie Ocean can probably talk Tammy into doing anything, if she tries. It barely takes effort at all – Debbie’s arms circling around Tammy’s hips and getting close enough that her breath catches, embarrassingly, like always, and promising she won’t let go of Tammy the whole time. And so Tammy gives in, and Debbie grins triumphantly and high-fives Lou as they head for the door.

As is to be expected, the haunted house is a nightmare. The only saving grace is that Daphne screams louder than Tammy does at some of the scares, and Debbie keeps a tight hold on Tammy’s hand with their fingers solidly interlocked, as promised.

Outside, she breathes in deep through her nose and out through her mouth, letting the cool, crisp October air carry all the tension out of her shoulders. Debbie tugs her in close, reaching up to tilt Tammy’s hat back for better access and brushing her lips across one cheekbone and then the other. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“It was horrible.” Tammy pouts; Debbie kisses it away. That works better than the repetitive deep breathing, and she allows her hands settle in at her girlfriend’s hips, holding her loosely in place and letting Debbie carefully deepen the kiss. When the other girl pulls back to catch her breath, Tammy shakes her head, still close enough that their foreheads touch. “It wasn’t  _ really _ horrible,” she admits reluctantly. “It was kind of fun, with you. And with them.”

Debbie’s fingers curl into the fabric of her dress even as Constance bounds towards them. “Lou and Nine want to go through again,” she announces, practically skidding to a halt. “You guys in or out?”

Maybe they will go again, or maybe they will stay out here, just the two of them, while the others go back inside. Maybe the eight of them will wander the corn maze together until they get lost several more times, make it back out to the parking lot feeling exhilarated with flushed cheeks, warm despite the weather. Maybe they will get back to her mother’s flat and squeeze into the living room with blankets and popcorn to watch scary Muggle movies, and maybe Debbie will put her arm around Tammy’s shoulders and let Tammy press her face into her shoulder at the scariest parts. Maybe they will fall asleep like that and wake up tomorrow, in November, and Tammy’s mum will make them all breakfast in the kitchen that’s too small for them all to fit. However it happens, she’s entirely sure that there is no better way to spend Halloween night.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos make me happy! just if you have a moment. if you want to, you can follow me on twitter – @deboceans – where i will be posting convenient links to the next one-shots going up in this mini halloween-based series! thank you for reading!


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